Paul Krugman writes a lot about the Liquidity Trap. I’ve always struggled with the concept – on one hand, he’s right – you can’t have interest rates below zero. But on the other hand, being in a liquidity trap (i.e…. Read moreA late epiphany

If national institutions give even their poorest and least educated citizens some shot at improving their own lives — through property rights, a reliable judicial system or access to markets — those citizens will do what it takes to make… Read moreFantastic quote from an unexpected source

People will try to sell you things by making you feel bad/inferior for not having it People will try to sell you things by trying to convince you that you will be better/more awesome if you have it People will… Read moreThings I need to make sure my children know

Really, we’ve had the solution since late June. (Inspired specifically by this) Whenever a problem like this presents itself, the answer is simple: A) Obama mandates a specific solution (in this case, everyone must marry by a certain age) B)… Read moreThe solution to all of our problems

Saw this question. I was perplexed that the question was even posed. In what world does this person live that they believe they have an ethical obligation to work on a project? Well, maybe they signed a contract? Or made… Read moreEthics

Aggregation Imagine a public school, where the students are struggling. Test scores are low. Graduation rates are low. This is a problem. What do we do? Well, of course, we just hand the principal a big check and walk away,… Read moreMy Issues with Keynesianism

Based on a summary of what I’ve found here: Do not eat these things: Glazed Donuts from Dunkin Donus Buffalo wings from Little Caesars Chicken Salad Sandwich from Chik-Fil-A Brownie Batter Blizzard at DQ Seafood, Crab or Tuna from Subway… Read moreWhat not to eat

I find myself trying to solve the puzzle of the Euro – trying to balance the needs of the independent states against each other, and against the reasonable assumptions of corruption, change, boom and bust, etc So, the problems: The… Read moreRandom thoughts on Euro 2.0

In this article, Kasparov claims that we’re in a period of technological stagnation. Some excerpts: We feel that we literally have something new every month, but in fact it is progress that is proceeding from technological innovations and revolutionary inventions… Read moreKasparov is wrong

Puter of the Gormogons has a thoughtful piece on how one spends one’s hours, minutes and seconds of remaining life. It’s a good article, don’t get me wrong. But it also made me angry. This, in particular: One Percenter got… Read moreTime and Priorities

This is a really, really good painting, IMO. – if you’re not familiar with the series – this presents the scene where the yellow-clad rebel lord Robert Baratheon attacked the crown prince Rhaegar Targaryen, 15 years before the start of… Read moreGame Of Thrones Geekery

This article about how plants helped form the Earth’s surface is quite interesting, but the lede seems flawed. If plants are the catalyst that turns rock into mud, once that mud exists, water will cut channels through it. And thus… Read morePlanets and Plants

This post was provocative about the “January Effect” – whether January is a good indicator of the performance of the rest of the year. There have been 72 Januaries since 1940, and of those, when January is positive, the year… Read moreFun with statistics

Inspired by this post. Imagine we have nation with 20% unemployment. The government decides to use Keynesian policies to deal with this, and they use debt at 2% to employ those unemployed people by having them dig holes, and then… Read moreThought Experiment, Part III

Continuing on the topic of my previous post… Let’s consider another pair of scenarios – In Universe A the economy goes into recession, and the need for business form approvals drops from 1000/day to 900/day. In Universe B, new software… Read moreThought experiment, part II

Imagine that there was a government agency that evaluated and approved business licensing forms. Assume these forms are very complex, and require an entire day’s worth of work to properly evaluate and approve. And let’s say that there are 1000… Read moreA thought experiment